Bangkok-based freelancer www.iantaylor.ca

Archive for the ‘Leica’ Category

In 2014 I went to India and took some informal street portraits. It was the first time I had traveled with the Leica M9. I used some Voigtlander lenses since there was no possibility of me paying two grand plus for Leica ones. I have posted the photos here before, but my slideshow video has got more than 35,000 views, so I am going to post it because why not.

I was incredibly lucky last month when a friend asked me if I’d like to make up the fourth person for a drive around the Tibetan area of West Sichuan, Province. Obviously I grabbed it. We were two Canucks, and two Chinese.We took a couple of weeks to make a 3000 km loop starting in Chengdu. For photographers who love scenery and interesting cultures, this has to be one of the best corners of the world.But rather than type about it, here are a few images. I have a larger gallery from this trip here.If you’d like to check out more of my work, you can check this and/or this.

So, I did something I had never really considered doing, I bought a Leica. A lightly used M9. After snickering at the Leica-heads for years, I now am one. I did however avoid acquiring the subsequent Leica Lens Fever that can kill savings accounts.Instead I bought a few very reasonably priced Voigtlander lenses. This glass comes in at around 20% of what similar Leica lenses would cost. Sure, Leica lenses are the best, but these Japanese lenses are just fine for my needs. Voila, my new travel kit.To kick the tires on my modest little rangefinder package, I went off to India for a few weeks. For the first couple of weeks I wandered aimlessly around Calcutta, shooting portraits and drinking tea. Then I headed to Jodhpur, Rajasthan to take part in conducting a workshop on travel photography. This gave me plenty of time to find out what would and would not work with the rangefinder.Obviously I love this camera. It’s amazing to use, it makes me slow down, and best of all, the files are beautiful. Warm and more ‘filmy’ than the Canon files I am used to. (It’s the CCD sensor I’m told.)Here are a few samples of images I made with the Leica, and my cheapo Voigtlander lenses.You can check out a larger gallery of these recent images on my FB page and my website.